Poultry litter rejuvenating machine

ABSTRACT

A poultry rejuvenating machine for attachment to a tractor includes a deck with an offset front frame attached to the top and front of the deck for attachment of the machine to a power-transfer output and a three-point hitch of a tractor. A rotating shaft is housed within the deck, and a plurality of peripheral blades are coaxially and equidistantly held on the shaft by bushings. Height adjustable skids attached to the bottom of the deck space the blades about 1 inch from the floor of a poultry house. A guide is provided on a projecting end of the deck, and a belt drive is provided on the other end of the deck that is drivingly engaged to the shaft. The machine traverses a poultry house to cut, turn and rejuvenate poultry litter.

PRIORITY CLAIM

The present application is a division of U.S. patent application Ser.No. 11/872,905 filed Oct. 16, 2007, which is a non-provisional of U.S.Provisional Patent application No. 60/892,529 filed Mar. 1, 2007.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention relates generally to a tractor-drawn machine forrejuvenating poultry litter accumulated over the ground surface of apoultry raising area and, in particular, to a machine for rejuvenatingpoultry litter that is loosened from the ground surface forward of anumber of rotary peripheral cutting blades. The loosed and rejuvenatedmaterial is redeposited by the traveling machine back onto the floor ofthe poultry house without throwing the litter.

2. Discussion of the Prior Art

Used poultry litter contains ammonia and bacteria which are detrimentalto the life of the poultry raised on it. The bacteria's byproducts canbe used as a benefactor for new chicks, but the ammonia must beeliminated. Once a crop of chicks has used litter, a hard crust formsjust under the surface of the litter and above the floor of the poultryhouse. This crust seals in ammonia that is being produced by the bird'sdroppings, and the ammonia cannot escape to the atmosphere. Insteadwithout further action, the ammonia will seep out very slowly from thepoultry floor and will damage the eyes and lungs of the later crop ofyoung chicks placed on the used litter.

The benefactor element, bacteria, found in the litter can be used toimprove the life of the chicks. By placing young chicks on old litter,the bacteria cause the day old chicks to build immunities to thebacteria. Whereas, if young chicks are placed on new litter, they willnot acquire the immunities. Later, when the bacterium becomes present,the older chicks will not have the immunities needed in order to have alower mortality rate.

Therefore, a need persists to destroy the crust that traps ammonia and,thereby, allow the ammonia to escape to the atmosphere and eliminate theammonia from the litter. Litter can be rejuvenated by eliminating thecrust from the poultry floor. The rejuvenated litter produces a softarea for the small chicks to bed down in, giving warmth, so the foodthat they consume goes to body weight and not body heat. The smallamount of weight that the chick gains the first few days of life in theimproved poultry house with rejuvenated litter can greatly increaseprofits from the production of poultry.

Poultry litter disintegrating machines now in commercial use utilizingflail units or rotors for comminuting the litter are shown, for example,in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,619,412 and 5,078,328. In the '412 machine, arearwardly and upwardly inclined scraper blade is positioned forward ofand over the full axial length of the flail rotor. As the machine isadvanced, the blade scrapes a layer of the litter from the poultryfloor. The layer then moves rearwardly and upwardly along the inclinedscraper blade into the operating zone of the rotor flail members, whichdisintegrate the litter as it moves rearwardly off the upper edge of thescraper blade. During this operation, gouging or digging of the scraperblade into the ground surface is prevented by setting the leading edgeof the blade a predetermined distance above the ground surface. Thecutting and lifting of the litter from the ground surface requires notonly appreciable power, but care must be used in retaining the groundadjustment of the blade. In the '328 machine, ripper teeth extendedforward of and mounted on the side walls of the machine act with theforward edges of the side walls to provide a section of litter fortravel between the side walls. On advance of the machine, the section oflitter between the side walls is acted upon by a rotary flail unitextended between and mounted on the side walls rearwardly of the ripperteeth for disintegration and discharge back to the ground floor forreuse. The density of the discharged litter material may be varied byvarying its rate of discharge from the machine.

An objective of the present invention is to provide a machine of theabove-described type, but which is more efficient, durable, safe tooperate, and which requires little maintenance.

A further objective of the present invention is to provide a poultryrejuvenating machine that does not discharge disintegrated litter fromthe machine and provides rejuvenation of the litter to release ammoniawhile minimizing dust.

Other features and advantages of the invention will become apparent tothose skilled in the art during the course of the following detaileddescription.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The poultry litter rejuvenation machine of the present invention isdesigned to increase the life of poultry house litter by breaking up thethick crust that forms just below the surface of the litter, thusallowing the ammonia to escape. The machine includes a seven-foot widedeck that saves time in rejuvenating litter by servicing the poultryhouse with fewer passes than comparable machines. The deck completelycovers the litter impacting area, which reduces the amount of free dustand other material floating in the air. The deck of the machine isoffset from the tractor to allow for close operation of the machine to apoultry house wall.

The machine uses a number of rigid peripheral blades that do not foldback under heavy loads, and these blades offer two cutting edges perrevolution. The blades improve performance over comparable machines bydelivering the machine's torque to the litter more efficiently. Atypical configuration of the machine will include twenty-two peripheralblades situated on the shaft. The penetration of the blades with respectto the compacted litter is managed by an adjustable skid. A control onthe machine adjusts the skid to control the height of the unit, and thedepth of surface penetration of the blades. The peripheral looseningmotion of the blades loosens the litter and causes the litter to bereturned to the center of the blades by centrifugal force for additionalcontact and loosening by the blades.

The machine includes a belt driven rotary shaft with the bladessequentially coaxially aligned thereon. Under heavy loads, the fourV-belt drive system provides for smooth operation of the machine. Thebelt-drive system and the deck of the machine are coupled to a tractorby fitting the machine to a three-point-hitch on a tractor, and themachine operates effectively at a standard 540 RPM via connection to atractor power take-off (PTO).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention and its advantages will be more fully described by way ofexample in the following description of the invention as illustrated inthe accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a rear perspective view of a poultry litter rejuvenatingmachine according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front perspective view of the machine.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary exploded perspective view of machine components.

FIG. 4 is front elevational cutaway view of the machine.

FIG. 5 is a side elevational sectional view, partially cutaway, ofmachine components.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, the litter rejuvenatingmachine of this invention, indicated generally at 10, is shown. Themachine 10 projects laterally from one side of a tractor and includes anupper front frame 12 to which is rigidly secured a three-point hitch 14.The unit assembly of the machine 10 and hitch 14 is pivotally supportedon a tractor for up and down movement in response to the actuation of anextensible link or hydraulic cylinder.

The machine 10 includes a deck 16, formed of a sheet metal material,covering a rotary shaft 18 and a number of peripheral blades 20. Thedeck 16 includes a front wall 22, a top wall 24, vertical end walls 26,28, and a rear wall 30. The upper front frame 12 is secured to the topwall 24 and front wall 22 and includes side frame members 32, 34 and anupper bracket 36 formed at the top of the side frame members. Athree-point hitch 14 can be attached to the lower portion of the sideframe members 32, 34 and the upper bracket 36. The front wall 22 of thedeck 16 inclines downwardly and forward and terminates upwardly from thelower ends of the end walls 26, 28. A downwardly and forward inclinedfirst panel 38 attaches to a lower edge of the front wall 22 to form aflexible guard extending transversely along the lower edge of the frontwall. The rear wall 30 of the deck 16 inclines downwardly and rearward,and terminates upwardly from the lower ends of the end walls 26, 28. Adownwardly and rearward inclined second panel 40 attaches to a loweredge of the rear wall 30 to form a flexible guard extending transverselyalong the lower edge of the rear wall. The guard panels 38, 40 eachproject from the front wall 22 and rear wall 30, respectively, to reducespace between the deck 16 and the surface of litter 42 and form anenclosure for the blade work area. The forward wall and first paneldefine the deck such that the deck is substantially open at its forwardside, particularly forward of the area comprising the blades. And, thedeck is substantially open at its bottom side exposing the blades to thehardened poultry litter and poultry house floor. The bottom edges of thevertical end walls are level with the bottom side of the deck.

The upper front frame 12 is offset from the center of the deck 16 towarda belt drive system 44 situated outside of one end wall 26 and protectedby a cover 46. The other end wall 28 includes a guide 48 extendingforward from the end wall 28 and curving inward toward the center of themachine 10. The offset front frame 12 causes the machine 10 to projectbeyond the extremities of the pulling tractor on one side thereof. Theprojection of the machine 10 allows the machine to work up against theboundaries of the poultry area using the guide 48 as a means to gaugethe position of the machine with respect to any physical boundariespresent. The overall width of the deck 16 may be seven feet or more toincrease the speed and productively of the machine 10 in rejuvenatinglitter by decreasing the number of sweeps needed by the machine to covera poultry area.

Each vertical end wall 26, 28 is equipped with a skid 50 and 50′ securedparallel to the bottom edge 52 of each end wall by welding the skid tothe bottom edge or attaching the skid by flange members 54, 56 as shownin FIGS. 2 and 5. The skids 50, 50′ are formed at their forward endswith downwardly inclined surfaces 58 and at their rearward ends withdownwardly inclined surfaces 60. The inclined surfaces 58 and 60 eachform an edge for smoothly engaging the litter 42 and settling the skids50 and 50′ into slidable contact with the poultry house floor or theground in the poultry area. The skids 50, 50′ support the machine 10 onthe surface of the poultry house floor. The skids 50, 50′ also providefor a level of the blades 20 of the machine 10 with respect to thelitter 42, and provide a smooth support surface for travel of themachine. As the level of the blades 20 may need to be adjusted, thelevel of the skids 50, 50′ may be adjustable to control the height ofthe deck 16 and depth of the blades 20. Therefore, the skids 50, 50′ maybe attached by bolts 62 through selected holes in the flange members 54,56, wherein additional holes in the flange members are provided forchanging and adjusting the height of the deck 14. The skids 50, 50′ willgenerally situate the lower portion of the blades 20 about one inchabove the floor surface in accordance with the adjustment of the heightof the machine 10.

Within the deck 14 and extended between the end walls 26 and 28 is aperipheral blade unit assembly that includes a transverse horizontalrotor shaft 18, the ends of which are rotatably supported in adjacentend walls. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the shaft 18 carries along itslength a plurality of coaxial and equidistantly spaced peripheral blades20 having four cutting edges 64, 66, 68, and 70 (FIG. 3) radiallysituated on each blade. Each blade 20 is a peripheral blade that reducesback drag and requires less horsepower from the power plant. The blades20 will not throw the litter 42 being loosened and can easily cut andmove through the compacted litter. Each blade 20 has a square mountingsurface 72 with an aperture 74 there through, which the shaft 18 canpass for mounting of the blade. The square mounting surface 72 has fourextended radially extending members, bent 90 degrees to the squaremounting surface. Two members are bent to the left and two to the right.Thus, two oppositely situated members and cutting edges extend leftwardand outward a first direction from the square mounting surface and twooppositely situated members and cutting edges extend rightward andoutward a second direction from the square mounting surface. The sidesand that portion that is bent are parallel to the shaft that will passthough the mounting hole 74. This leaves a square that is measureddiagonally for blade size which depends on the size of the blade 20desired. The cutting edges 64, 66, 68, and 70 of FIG. 3 are along thefront edge of the extended sides. The lengths of the cutting edges alsodepend on the desired size of the blade 20. The trailing edge of theblade 20 is angled back (ref. #76 of FIG. 3) to the square section ofthe blade for strength, the cutting edges are not necessarily sharpened,but are hardened for wear.

In the machine 10, the blade 20 is mounted on the shaft 18 withplurality of other blades 20 of the same type as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4.Each blade 20 is separated by a bushing 78 that allows a small amount ofblade overlap, about ½ inch. The blades 20 and bushings 78 are clampedtight enough on the shaft 18 to prevent slippage unless one of theblades strike as object, which allows for safety and for survival of theequipment.

The machine 10 includes the belt drive 44 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 4. Thebelt drive 44 receives power input from a tractor power take-offconnected through a telescopic shaft with a gear unit 80. The gear unit80 transfers power to a shaft 82 that drives the belt drive 44, and thebelt drive is drivingly engaged with the rotary blade shaft 18 coupledthereto to provide a power drive means coupled to the shaft 18 forrotation of the shaft and blades. The plurality of the blades 20 arecoaxial on the blade shaft 18 and rotate with the shaft at high speedduring the machine operation. The cutting edges 64, 66, 68, 70 of therotating blades 20 turn in the direction of the arrow A in FIG. 5 orclockwise as shown in that view, while the machine 10 is moving forwardin the direction of the second arrow B. The blades 20 penetrate thelitter 42 toward the direction of travel. The speed of the blades 20 andthe design that the blade cutting edges 64, 66, 68, 70 provide aperipheral path perpendicular to the cut and eliminate back drag, sothat torque backup is not required by the power plant. Due to the designof the blade 20, when it cuts and turns the litter 42, the litter issent to the center of the blade by centrifugal forces and then returnsto the cutting edges for further cutting and fragmentation before returnby centrifugal force to the poultry house floor.

Each cutting edge 64, 66, 68, 70 leads the radially extending membersduring clockwise rotation of the blades while the machine is moving in aforward direction. As the blades 20 rotate in a circular path and themachine 10 travels over a litter 42 section, the cutting edges 64, 66,68, 70 will penetrate into the litter 42 on a poultry house floor, oneat a time with respect to each blade, without contacting the floorsurface. The blade edges will cut into the litter by individualsequential entry of each blade cutting edge into the layer of hardcrusted poultry litter as the machine moves forward, thus generatingloosened litter. As the cutting edges penetrate the litter, the litteris cut, turned, loosened, fragmented and returned by centrifugal forceof the peripheral blades 20 to the center of the blades for furtherturning, cutting and loosening as the machine 10 traverses the area. Thelitter 42 is returned to the ground of the poultry raising area in acomminuted form for reuse or for later removal without throwing ordischarging, but by centrifugal replacement of the litter back onto theground beneath the blades 20 as the machine moves forward. Therotational speed of the shaft 18 and size of the blades 20 may be variedto adjust the speed of the blades and change the extent of cutting andbreaking up of the litter 42.

It is to be understood that the form of the invention herewith shown anddescribed is to be taken as a preferred example of the same, and thatvarious changes in the shape, size and arrangement of parts may beresorted to, without departing from the spirit of the invention or scopeof the subjoined claims.

1. A method of rejuvenating poultry litter comprising the steps of:providing a plurality of blades having four cutting edges on radiallyextending members situated on each blade with two oppositely situatedcutting edges oriented outward a first direction and two oppositelysituated cutting edges oriented outward a second direction that isopposite the first direction; coaxially arranging the plurality ofblades along a transverse horizontal axis rotary shaft on a machine;orienting each blade on the shaft such that each cutting edge leads theradially extending members during clockwise rotation of the blades whilethe machine is moving in a forward direction; moving the machine in theforward direction and rotating the blades clockwise in a peripheralmotion by rotation of the transverse horizontal axis rotary shaft of themachine; and penetrating a layer of poultry litter on a poultry housefloor by individual sequential entry of each blade cutting edge into thelayer of poultry litter as the machine moves forward to generateloosened litter.
 2. A method as in claim 1 in which the step ofpenetrating the layer of poultry litter includes returning the loosenedlitter to the blade's center by the peripheral motion of the blades andthen returning the loosened litter to the cutting edges for furtherfragmenting of the loosened litter.
 3. A method as in claim 1 includingthe additional step of replacing the loosened litter after furtherdiminution onto the poultry house floor by centrifugal force of therotating blades.
 4. A method as in claim 1 including the additional stepof supporting the cutting edges of the blades above the poultry housefloor upon penetration of the layer of poultry litter.
 5. A method as inclaim 1 in which the cutting edges of the blades are supported one inchabove the poultry house floor.